The latest victim of a crypto Twitter scam is global retailer, Target. The U.S.-based corporation confirmed that they had suffered a 30-minute security breach.
Twitter has been abuzz (aflutter?) recently with crypto scams. Just last week, Live Bitcoin News reported on how billionaire entrepreneur, Elon Musk’s, account was hacked with the Tesla CEO seemingly promising massive returns on investments if followers simply contribute a small number of bitcoins.
Now, according to The Next Web, the Twitter account of major U.S. retailer, Target, is the latest to be hacked. In a tweet that has since been deleted, the company’s two million followers were allegedly promised over $31 million worth of Bitcoin.
Target Becomes a, Well, Target
The tweet stated:
We giving 5 000 Bitcoin to all community! We present cryptocurrency payments for your purchases in our store, and want to celebrate this event with all users! We organize the biggest crypto-giveaway in the world!
The poorly written tweet then goes on to request that users send 0.2 to 2 BTC to the address provided, after which, they will receive 2 to 40 BTC back. But wait, there’s more! If they send more than 1 BTC, they’ll get an extra 200% back! Can you believe it!? No? Neither can we.
In order to make the scam somewhat believable, the comments section showed a slew of equally hacked happy customers. These include the University of Toledo Athletic Department, who received 20 BTC and even, randomly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Serbia. This is a common modus operandi of these Twitter fraudsters as they believe that comments by well-known people will lend more legitimacy to their cause.
Breach Confirmed
A spokesperson for Target confirmed the security breach:
Early this morning, Target’s Twitter account was inappropriately accessed. The access lasted for approximately half an hour and one fake tweet was posted during that time about a Bitcoin scam. We’re in close contact with Twitter, have deleted the tweet and have locked the account while we investigate further.
However, while now contained, there is still no information on who the culprits of the scam are.
Live Bitcoin News has previously reported that security researchers have found over 15,000 bots in the Twittersphere pushing cryptocurrency scams. In fact, they concluded that some of these fraudsters are even working together, going for the old strength-in-numbers approach.
While this appears to add to the erroneous assumption that the cryptocurrency industry as a whole is dodgy, that’s obviously not the case. These hacks and security breaches will most likely continue but potential victims need to be able to spot these scams and steer clear. If its too good to be true, it is.
Have you ever found yourself the victim of a crypto Twitter scam? Let us know in the comments below!
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